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Three Marines from Clearwater serving together in Iraq
By LUCIAN FRIEL
Special to Tampa Bay Newspapers
| Article published on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/102005_cit-03.jpg) |
| From left are U.S. Marines Lance Cpl. Benjamin Hallstrom, 22, Cpl. Matt Orth, 22, and Sgt. Chris Whitman, 23. They are with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, deployed to Iraq. |
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CAMP AL QA’IM, IRAQ – Some people say the Marine Corps is a small community in a small world. Three Clearwater natives who live less than five minutes from each other are proof of that theory.
Sgt. Chris Whitman, 23, Cpl. Matt Orth, 22, and Lance Cpl. Benjamin Hallstrom, 22, are all deployed here with the same unit, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.
The three Marines are all graduates of Clearwater High School – Whitman in 2000, Hallstrom in 2001 and Orth in 2002.
Whitman and Orth were in Junior Marine Corps Reserve Officer Training Corps together in high school, where the two competed against other JROTC cadets in state color guard competitions. Both were absolutely determined to join the Corps when they left high school.
Whitman joined the Marine Corps and became a mortar man, but Orth made a detour and decided to join the Army Reserves and left for boot camp the summer before his senior year.
When Orth returned from boot camp to start his senior year, he and Hallstrom, who was in his freshman year of college, started to spend more time together and eventually became best friends.
Then in 2002, after discovering that he could not deploy to Afghanistan with his Army unit, Orth left college and the Army and went to Marine recruit training in November 2002.
“My original plan was to be in the Army reserves, go through college, become a commissioned officer and then join the Corps, but I figured I might as well join now and go active duty,” Orth said.
When Orth returned from recruit training, Hallstrom seemed to be interested in joining the Corps as well.
“When Matt got back, that’s when I really started thinking about joining, so I talked to him about it,” Hallstrom said.
While Orth moved on to the School of Infantry East at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Hallstrom started to talk to the Marine Corps recruiter. Not letting Orth “one-up him,” Hallstrom joined the Corps and left for recruit training in September 2003.
By this time, Whitman had been in the Corps for almost three years and returned from Iraq in May of 2003 with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines. Little did he know that he would be in formation with a familiar face when he returned.
While Whitman was in Iraq, Orth had received his orders to Company L and headed to Camp Lejeune, N.C. During the morning formation, after his return, Whitman glanced over at the new Marines joining his platoon, and there was Orth.
“I was so surprised to see Matt standing there, I was pretty dumb-founded,” Whitman said.
“Who would have thought two years prior to that we would be standing together in the same platoon in the same unit in the Marine Corps,” Orth said.
The two Marines were reunited in the color guard at that year’s Marine Corps birthday ball. But Orth soon departed to Afghanistan as a sniper for the battalion.
Meanwhile, Hallstrom finished School of Infantry to become a rifleman and learned of his new unit.
“They told me Company M, three-two, and the first thing I did was call Chris at Lejeune and asked him what unit he was with. Sure enough, he said, three-two,” Hallstrom said.
As Orth’s deployment to Afghanistan was winding down, he heard that Hallstrom was in Company M and would be deploying to Cuba soon. Orth quickly came to a conclusion: “I knew there was only one battalion that had a Mike Company going to Cuba and that was this battalion,” Orth said.
After that, Whitman was on the second half of the deployment to Afghanistan and ended up relieving Orth.
“So at this point Ben was in Cuba, Matt returned to the States to start sniper school in Quantico, Va., and I was in Afghanistan on my second deployment,” Whitman said.
Throughout October and November of 2004, the three high school friends returned to their battalion in Camp Lejeune.
The three went home together for Christmas leave and spent a lot of time catching up on the experiences they had.
“It’s funny; when we went home together on leave, the three of us would be at a party or something and we would start talking about things in the Marine Corps and no one else there would understand what we were talking about,” Whitman said.
“For instance we would be talking about things that happened during each of our deployments and all three of us would think it was funny, but everyone else would be like ‘are you seriously laughing about that,’ ” Hallstrom said. “Being in the Corps together has definitely brought us closer together.”
Hallstrom continued to explain their vacation at home together.
“It was the first time all of us had been together since joining the Corps, which is crazy being that we are all in the same unit at this point,” Hallstrom said.
In February, the three Marines deployed together, but they wouldn’t be together for too long. Whitman was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, Al Asad, Iraq, as a member of the base guard force. Orth, was sent to Camp Gannon in Husaybah, Iraq, with the battalion’s scout sniper platoon. Hallstrom, a team leader with Company K, was stationed at Camp Al Qa’im, Iraq, participating in Operation Matador among others.
“So, again, we were all in the same unit, in the same country, but only within 100 miles of each other,” Orth said.
But in mid-June, the battalion needed more snipers at Al Qa’im. Orth was sent to the camp and was attached to Hallstrom’s platoon for the next mission.
During Operation Spear, a five-day operation conducted to destroy insurgents in the city of Karabilah, Orth and Hallstrom found themselves one night reminiscing on a rooftop in the city.
“Who would have thought two best friends would end up on a rooftop in Iraq during a battle talking about old times in high school?” Hallstrom said.
After Operation Spear in July, Orth and Hallstrom were joined by their friend Whitman when Company L came to Al Qa’im to finish their deployment with the battalion.
“The first time I saw them here I said thank God they’re alive, because in Al Asad we were pretty safe, but we would hear about all the things going on here. I couldn’t wait to get here and see them,” Whitman said.
As the three Marines spend their last days in Iraq during this deployment together, hanging out during down time and going to dinner together every night, one thing is on all of their minds: What to do when they all return home.
The three Clearwater natives are scheduled to return to the United States in early fall, and the time to redeploy makes Orth reflect on the past five years.
“It’s crazy when you think about it,” said Orth. “The three of us live five minutes from each other back home and here we are together in Iraq. You couldn’t ask for a better story than that,” Orth said.
Hallstrom and Whitman simply nodded their heads and agreed that it’s going to be a great story to tell when they get home.
Lance Cpl. Lucian Friel is a combat correspondent for the 2nd Marine Division in Portsmouth, Va.
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Article published on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005
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